187

SYNOPSIS:
In the U.S., 187 is police code for homicide. Street gangs have
incorporated the term into their own code; it means You're dead.
When teacher Trevor Garfield (Samuel L. Jackson) sees 187
scrawled throughout the pages of his teaching text, his being
stabbed in the hallway of his Brooklyn high school is a foregone
conclusion. When we next see him, 18 months later, he's living in
South Central Los Angeles and working as a supply teacher, and
his spark is gone. But those three troublesome digits are not.

"Written by a teacher, an angry teacher, 187 is
compelling as drama, important as social soul searching
(especially but not only in America). However, the film skirts
close to moral dilemmas that were hotly debated in A Time To
Kill, namely the whiff of justifiable murder. While 187 does not
appear to condone the act, there is a feeling that it would like
us to. The premise that a teacher can be pushed too far and
turned bad himself is a strong one, especially in a society where
going to school is fast becoming a death-defying business. The
film suggests that there are intractably menacing, violent
students in their late teens who, having failed to find any role
or meaning in "normal" society, are at best a nuisance
to others, at worst a real danger. These are usually kids from
poor and broken homes, some are struggling to speak English let
alone learn science, and the system simply turns its back. In
this area, the film is sure of its ground. When tackling the
slippery question of how one teacher responds, the film barely
manages to disguise its vigilante attitude, and no matter how
sympathetic we are to this poor, lonely, traumatised and
ultimately decent man - demented by his commendable vocation - we
canít allow ourselves to accept his solution. In the end, he
seems to make an impression on a trio of maniacal students, but
not for the right reasons, and at enormous cost. And perhaps
thatís the one hanging question the film did not - and can
not - answer: at what cost can we make a difference for the
better? It is a gripping, downbeat film, but Samuel L. Jackson
and his supporting cast are ferociously good. "
Andrew L. Urban

"Here we ago again, minority gangs, kids who are
anti-authoritarian, rap music is their symbol, and the teacher
trying to make a difference. The difference, in this ludicrous
film, is that teacher Trevor Garfield had been watching those
Death Wish movies. As an audience, you are expected to believe
that this man with such religious convictions who still has a
passion for teaching, albeit a subdued passion, would go around
ripping the finger off a crazed student and killing another. You
are asked to believe, in one of the many infantile moments in
this film, that an intelligent teacher would tutor, at his home,
a pretty Hispanic student, while she takes her clothes off for
him. "I just wanted to thank you," she says. One is
expected to believe that in an age of civil libertarianism, a
teacher would be allowed to videotape his class after accusing
one of its members of stealing his watch. And the list goes on.
The relationship between the committed teacher and a student can
result in creating a memorable film, as in Stand and Deliver or
Dead Poet's Society. 187 is a deeply dangerous and false film, a
superficial and ugly account of a real problem in urban American
society. Samuel Jackson is usually such a haunting presence on
screen, but here he delivers a flat, one-note and uninspiring
performance. Directed with glaring pretentiousness by Kevin
Reynolds, it is only at the very conclusion of 187 is there
evidence of what could have been. But that's all too little too
late, in one of the most futile and incredible films to emerge
this year."
Paul Fischer